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Los señores presidentes y los guerrilleros: The New and the Old Guatemalan Novel (1976-1982)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Seymour Menton
Seymour Menton*
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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In literary terms, the new novel did not emerge until 1976 in Guatemala, which represented a ten-to-fifteen-year lag behind most of the other Latin American countries. Since 1976, however, four Guatemalan novels have been published that merit consideration in the same rank with Hijo de hombre (1960), La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962), Gestos (1963), Rayuela (1963), La casa verde (1966), Cien años de soledad (1967), and Tres tristes tigres (1967). The explanation for the earlier paucity of high-quality, structurally and linguistically experimental novels is simple. The blatant violation of human rights by the autocratic governments of Carlos Castillo Armas (1954-57) and his successors has led to the exodus of the best-known authors and the self-censorship or silence of others. In this political climate, the birth of a Guatemalan literary generation of 1954 was almost completely aborted. With the exception of some new works published abroad by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974) and Mario Monteforte Toledo (b. 1911), Guatemala's two most important twentieth-century novelists, the novels published between 1954 and 1975 were generally undistinguished, as is suggested by the annotated bibliography accompanying this essay.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , 1984 , pp. 93 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 by Latin American Research Review

References

The following critical bibliography of Guatemalan novels published between 1955 and 1982 includes a few titles of works that I have been unable to locate and read.Google Scholar
Herrera, Marta Josefina 1955 Álvarez, Carlos E. Espada de remordimiento. Guatemala City: Editorial Landivar.Google Scholar
Álvarez, Carlos E. 1956 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. 49 días en la vida de una mujer: novela histórica. The fall of the Arbenz government in May and June of 1954 is presented through the observations of a woman deeply in love.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1956 Gálvez Estrada, Héctor. Redención. Guatemala City: Centro Editorial, 257 pp. Justification of the Castillo Armas regime.Google Scholar
Gálvez Estrada, Héctor 1956 Hurtado Espinosa, Alfonso. De la cumbre al valle. Guatemala City: Imprenta Hispania, 188 pp.Google Scholar
Hurtado Espinosa, Alfonso 1956 Rodríguez Macal, Virgilio. Jinayá. Guatemala City: Centro Editorial. Defense of a German coffee-plantation owner in Alta Verapaz, with criticism of the Arévalo-Arbenz governments and an exaggeratedly heroic protagonist. The idyllic description of the plantation and the hunt scenes are reminiscent of the nineteenth-century Colombian novel María.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Macal, Virgilio 1957 Aguirre, Lily. Estigma. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 158 pp.Google Scholar
Aguirre, Lily 1957 Valenti, Walda. Azul y roca. Mexico City: Imprenta Arana Hermanos. Love story of a young doctor accompanied by criticism of wealthy women. A tourist's view of Lake Atitlán.Google Scholar
Valenti, Walda 1958 Wyld Ospina, Carlos. Los lares apagados. Guatemala City: Editorial Universitaria, 273 pp. This posthumous volume contains the short novel of the title (72 pp.) and six short stories. A skeletal form of the subgenre that portrays the indigenista as marginal man, as exemplified by Monteforte Toledo's Entre la piedra y la cruz (1948). The hero is a Kecchí Indian who abandons his father's land to work on a coffee plantation owned by Germans. Too many events crowded into seventy pages.Google Scholar
Wyld Ospina, Carlos 1959 Barret, Margarita de. El cabello rojo. Guatemala City: Editorial Universitaria, 319 pp.Google Scholar
Barret, Margarita de 1959 Coronado Aguilar, Manuel. El año 2001. Quezaltenango: Editorial El Tiempo, 344 pp.Google Scholar
Coronado Aguilar, Manuel 1959 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. Il faut vivre. French edition, Brussels, Belgium: Editorial Messaco. Second edition, … y tenemos que vivir. Mexico City: Editorial Latinoamericana, 1961. Third edition, Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio, 1963. Fourth edition, Guatemala City: Editorial del Ministerio de Educación Pública “José de Pineda Ibarra,” 1978. The narrator recalls his childhood and adolescence in a small town near Antigua during the Ubico dictatorship, when he overcame poverty through study and hard work. Expresses compassion for the Indians and protest against government abuses. Moving story simply told, but it excessively idealizes some characters. The novel ends with the optimism generated by the 1944 Revolution.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1959 Rodríguez Macal, Virgilio. Negrura. Madrid: Editorial Colenda, 361 pp. A poor attempt to capture the thoughts and feelings of a German veteran of World War II in what is probably the city of Hamburg. The title refers to the hopeless gloom enshrouding a world that can be saved only by faith.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Macal, Virgilio 1959 Zea Ruano, Rafael. Ñor Julián. Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 130 pp. A psychological study of a Guatemalan brujo who succeeds in liberating his soul from his body.Google Scholar
Zea Ruano, Rafael 1960 Asturias, Miguel Ángel. Los ojos de los enterrados. Buenos Aires: Losada, 482 pp. The third volume of the banana trilogy. Preparations for a strike at Bananera and Tiquisate are coordinated with the movement to overthrow Ubico. Overemphasis on ugly, pornographic scenes with drunken U.S. soldiers. The puns are not as clever as those in the author's previous works.Google Scholar
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1960 Zea Ruano, Rafael. Las barbas de don Rafay. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Educación Pública. A poor old farmer suffers because nobody, not even his own family, respects him or believes the tales of his heroics in the wars of President Rafael Carrera.Google Scholar
Zea Ruano, Rafael 1962 Arévalo, Teresa. Emilia. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 142 pp. Matrimonial difficulties caused by the wife's tuberculosis. The two protagonists are well depicted, but an excess of unimportant incidents weakens the plot. Written in 1955.Google Scholar
Arévalo, Teresa 1962 Asturias, Miguel Ángel. El Alhajadito. Buenos Aires: Goyanarte, 141 pp. Poetic, surrealistic short novel about a sensitive illegitimate boy in search of his identity. Divided into three semi-independent parts. Almost total absence of typically Guatemalan elements, including speech.Google Scholar
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1962 Barrientos, Alfonso Enrique. El desertor. Guatemala City: Ediciones del Círculo Literario de Guatemala, 358 pp. Portrays the unsavory role of the military in Latin America. Narrated by the hero of the title, who leads a band of revolutionaries that is finally destroyed. Simple style is marred by immature attempts at experimentation.Google Scholar
Barrientos, Alfonso Enrique 1962 McDonald, Sonia Rincón de. El destino sonríe. Guatemala City: Editorial del Ministerio de Educación Pública “José de Pineda Ibarra,” 173 pp. Modeled on Castillo Armas's wife. Journalistic style with Romantic elements.Google Scholar
McDonald, Sonia Rincón de 1962 Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de. Sabor a justicia. Quezaltenango: Unión Tipográfica. Tragic life of a woman who kills her unfaithful husband, then commits suicide following another disillusioning love. Set in France and not at all related to Guatemala.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de 1962 Ferguson, Gloria. La herencia del abuelo. Guatemala City: Editorial del Ministerio de Educación Pública “José de Pineda Ibarra,” 139 pp.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Gloria 1962 García Granados, Jorge. El deán turbulento. Guatemala City: Universidad de San Carlos. Historical novel situated in early seventeenth-century Antigua depicting conflict between the haughty Inquisition official and the humble, humanitarian bishop. Too much historical detail.Google Scholar
García Granados, Jorge 1962 Rodriguez Macal, Virgilio. Guayacán. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Educación Pública, 560 pp. Written in 1953, but not published until 1962. The author's criticism of the Arbenz government and his favorable attitude towards Yankee imperialism is indeed rare in Central American prose fiction. Set in the Petén jungle, the novel's similarity to Gallegos's Canaima and Rivera's La vorágine weakens its impact.Google Scholar
Rodriguez Macal, Virgilio 1962 Zea Ruano, Rafael. Donde la niña Hermilia. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Educación Pública. A much-loved, honorable woman who owns a coffee plantation cannot cope with a series of tragedies (sickness, storm, earthquake, economic problems) and ultimately dies.Google Scholar
Zea Ruano, Rafael 1963 Asturias, Miguel Ángel. Mulata de tal. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 280 pp. What starts out as a Guatemalan version of the Faust legend becomes a struggle between Catholic and Quiché demons. Magical elements predominate over reality. Characters are transformed into dwarfs and giants. The usual Asturian obsession with sex and wordplay, but no plot line and little social concern.Google Scholar
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1963 Zea Ruano, Rafael. Luto. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio, 122 pp. An old man recalls his childhood and laments the disappearance of three former friends. Reflections on the tragedy of life.Google Scholar
Zea Ruano, Rafael 1964 Montezuma Hurtado, Alberto. Piedras preciosas. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional, 277 pp. Two short novels set in Colombia. Piedras preciosas portrays a bureaucrat's personal integrity during the corrupt reign of Dictator Rojas Pinilla. La luz humana presents the conflict between young love and old political rivalries. Both novellas contain some descriptive passages reminiscent of modernism, but realistic dialogue predominates. Both end happily.Google Scholar
Montezuma Hurtado, Alberto 1964 Pérez Maldonado, Raúl. La sangre no es azul. Chichicastenango, 277 pp. Poorly written social protest aimed at the dictatorial, graft-ridden government and reactionary landowners. Too much moralizing and sentimentality.Google Scholar
Pérez Maldonado, Raúl 1965 Arévalo, J. Gregorio. Huracán en las almas. Guatemala City: Editorial de Autores Nacionales, 238 pp. Romantic melodrama with trite dialogue and an anachronistic theme.Google Scholar
Arévalo, J. Gregorio 1965 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. Mansión en la bruma. Guatemala City: Editorial de Autores Nacionales, 124 pp. An embittered spinster who owns a coffee plantation reluctantly accepts her widowed young sister-in-law and child. Beautiful descriptions of nature border on the trite. Melodramatic situations, soap-opera dialogues, and an inconsequential call for a radical revolution.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1965 Cobos, Hernández, Humberto, José. Las casas sin paredes. Guatemala City: Secretaría de Información del Gobierno, 252 pp.Google Scholar
Hernández Cobos, José Humberto 1965 Quintana Rodas, Epaminondas. El agro ubérrimo, pasional y trágico. Barcelona.Google Scholar
Quintana Rodas, Epaminondas 1965 Radford, Luis Neftalí. Las castas de la Meches. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio.Google Scholar
Radford, Luis Neftalí. 1965 Radford, Luis Neftalí. Rancho de Manaco. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio, 241 pp. Too many characters and events are crowded into this portrayal of a rural environment during the years of the agrarian reform. Includes unleashed passions, mistaken identities, murders, superstition, and the appearance of a ghost.Google Scholar
Radford, Luis Neftalí. 1965 Rodríguez Chávez, Elisa. Oro de cobre. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio, 210 pp. An excessively idealized professor of medicine reveals the conflicts within the Universidad de San Carlos. Phrases like “sentimientos sublimes” and “almas rectísimas” indicate the artistic level.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Chávez, Elisa 1966 Contreras Vélez, Álvaro. ¡A la orden de usted, General Otte! Guatemala City: Editorial Prensa Libre, 247 pp. A delightful farce on the rise and fall of a typical Latin American dictator. Military coups, U.S. intervention, student demonstrations, and terroristic bombings are all treated humorously. Typical Guatemalan fondness for puns.Google Scholar
Contreras Vélez, Álvaro 1966 Contreras Vélez, Álvaro. El blanco que tenía el asma negra. Guatemala City: Editorial Prensa Libre, 232 pp. This novel is a humorous treatment of an asthmatic journalist's travels to the U.S. and Japan in search of a cure. Satirical comments on American racial discrimination, foreign aid, tourism, and the CIA; Guatemalan terrorism and government tyranny; and Latin American democracy. Tone similar to José Milla's artículos de costumbres, with witty use of language.Google Scholar
Contreras Vélez, Álvaro 1966 Malín, D'Echevers. Metal noble. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Educación Pública. Soap-opera kind of love story.Google Scholar
Malín, D'Echevers 1966 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. Fuego en la ciudad. Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 201 pp. Historical novel about American filibustero William Walker.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1966 Estrada, Hugo. Veneno tropical.Google Scholar
Estrada, Hugo 1966 Valdizón, López, María, José. La sangre del maíz. Guatemala City: Ediciones Nuevo Día, 197 pp. A loosely structured interpretation of life in a Guatemalan village in the vein of Miguel Ángel Asturias's Hombres de maíz. Costumbrista sketches of the Indian and ladino inhabitants, defense of the educational and agrarian reforms undertaken during the Arévalo and Arbenz regimes, Mayan folklore, and the ever-present Guatemalan flair for linguistic games.Google Scholar
López Valdizón, José María 1966 Monteforte Toledo, Mario. Llegaron del mar. México City: Joaquin Mortiz, 234 pp. A poetic and anthropological recreation of Mayan life in Yucatán on the eve of the Spanish Conquest. Describes relations between the Mayans and their Aztec lords. Individual cuadros with little, if any, plot structure.Google Scholar
Monteforte Toledo, Mario 1966 Pellecer, Carlos Manuel. Útiles después de muertos. Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 399 pp. A “nonfiction” interpretation of events in Cuba from 1952 to 1964 by Guatemalan ex-Communist Pellecer. The trial of Marcos Rodríguez is the vehicle through which the author denounces the machinations of the Communists and Fidel Castro's egocentric personality. A Cuban version of Koestler's Darkness at Noon.Google Scholar
Pellecer, Carlos Manuel 1966 Solórzano, Carlos. Los falsos demonios. Mexico City: Joaquín Mortiz, 217 pp. A psychological study of the timid and sensitive narrator who is dominated by women; he is reminiscent of the protagonists of Rafael Arévalo Martínez. The narrator's fears stemming from personal insecurity are related to the nation's fears engendered by dictators Estrada Cabrera and Ubico. The narrator tells his story from a hospital bed, as though trying to justify his life to his estranged son.Google Scholar
Solórzano, Carlos 1967 Arévalo, J. Gregorio. Cien y una noches en mi tierra de marfil. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional, 207 pp.Google Scholar
Arévalo, J. Gregorio 1967 Bernhard, Carlos A. El indio zarco. Guatemala City: Imprenta Hispania, 100 pp.Google Scholar
Bernhard, Carlos A. 1967 Leonor, Paz y Paz G. La mujer de pelo largo. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 202 pp. Protest against a hypocritical priest and the living conditions of the rural and urban poor, which are melodramatically contrasted with the wealth and immorality of the rich. The novel contains too much moralizing, and its different elements are not well integrated.Google Scholar
Leonor, Paz y Paz G. 1968 Cifuentes, Edwin. Carnaval de sangre en mi ciudad. Guatemala City: Editorial Contemporánea, 60 pp. A cruel vision of Guatemala City bloodied by both right-wing official government terrorism and left-wing revolutionary terrorism. Each side tries to outdo the other in cruelty. Long paragraphs with little or no punctuation and frequently shifting points of view help create the nightmarish vision.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, Edwin 1968 Montenegro, Montenegro Juan de. La máscara. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio, 112 pp. A psychology teacher narrates the envious rivalry between his smalltown and big-city students. The leader of one group is expelled for homosexual activities while the other leader commits suicide.Google Scholar
Montenegro, Montenegro Juan de 1968 Pater, Julius. La gaveta del abuelo. Guatemala City: Talleres Gráficos Díaz-Paiz, 684 pp. Includes the novel that won the 1959 Quezaltenango prize, La maraña, several short stories, poems, aphorisms, and a dictionary of religious concepts. La maraña (171 pp.) consists of a priest's interpretation of life in a small Indian village. He views the world in terms of the struggle between good and evil, Jesus and Satan.Google Scholar
Pater, Julius 1968 Valiente Rodríguez, Oscar. La historia de un lustrador. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional, 150 pp.Google Scholar
Valiente Rodríguez, Oscar 1968 Vargas, Edgardo León. La maestra de mi pueblo. Guatemala City: Editorial San Antonio.Google Scholar
Vargas, Edgardo León 1969 Asturias, Miguel Ángel. Maladrón. Buenos Aires: Losada, 217 pp. A historical novel about the ill-fated attempt in the mid-sixteenth century of four Spanish deserters to find the meeting place of the two oceans and to foment the cult of the Bad Thief, whom they consider the true martyr instead of Jesus. The first quarter of the novel artfully describes the defeat of the Mam Indians in the Green Andes of Huehuetenango at the hands of the Spanish conquistadores, but the main part of the novel is disappointing. Less linguistic experimentation and less humor than in Asturias's previous novels.Google Scholar
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1969 Guerrero, Ulises. Los otros.Google Scholar
Guerrero, Ulises 1969 Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de. Azul cuarenta. Story of a black child.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de 1969 Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de. Los brutos. Guatemala: Unión Tipográfica, 314 pp. Describes an international narcotics ring with an outpost on a small island off the northern coast of Honduras. The exasperating tranquility of the tropical scene alternates with case studies of the individual criminals: an unemployed radical teacher, an alcoholic wealthy landowner, a Corsican gigolo, an ambitious daughter of poor Italian immigrants, as well as the homosexual son of a Guatemalan ranchowner, and his aristocratic French wife. Little suspense for what is basically an adventure novel.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Blanca Luz Molina de 1970 Paniagua Santizo, Benjamín. Luces, bruma y amor: novela en el camino. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 128 pp. Sickeningly sweet narrative.Google Scholar
Paniagua Santizo, Benjamín 1971 Pérez Paniagua, Roberto. Los trece cielos. Guatemala City: Editorial Cultural Centroamericana. Costumbrista portrayal of Mayan life in Chichén-Itzá before the arrival of the Spaniards. Love and war predominate.Google Scholar
Pérez Paniagua, Roberto 1971 Solórzano, Carlos. Las celdas. Mexico City: Joaquín Mortiz, 218 pp. Set in the Benedictine monastery of Gregorio Lemercier in Cuernavaca with its controversy over psychoanalysis. The Guatemalan protagonist anxiously searches for and ultimately finds his masculinity. His neurotic state is explained through brief, but revealing, recollections of his early relations with his virile, donjuanesque father and his self-pitying mother.Google Scholar
Solórzano, Carlos 1972 Ardón Fernández, José Enrique. Monseñor y Josefina. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional. Historical novel set in the 1820s. The possible love affairs of the archbishop.Google Scholar
Ardón Fernández, José Enrique 1972 Asturias, Miguel Ángel. Viernes de Dolores. Buenos Aires: Losada, 314 pp. A somewhat nostalgic recreation of life in Guatemala City during the Estrada Cabrera dictatorship, based on the traditional pre–Holy Week parade by university students in which the pillars of society are mercilessly lampooned. The theme of treachery and the social protest are subordinated to typical Guatemalan puns and several grotesquely humorous scenes of sex and drunkenness.Google Scholar
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1972 Barrientos, Alfonso Enrique. Ancora en la arena. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional. Stream-of-consciousness narration centered at a fictitious beach resort.Google Scholar
Barrientos, Alfonso Enrique 1972 Cifuentes, Edwin. jesús Corleto. San José, Costa Rica.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, Edwin 1972 Diez de Arriola, Luis. Un Quijote de la era atómica o ¿Gobierno mundial para el año 2000? Guatemala City: Imprenta Gutenberg, 383 pp.Google Scholar
Diez de Arriola, Luis 1972 Mansilla, Pepe. Cita a medianoche. Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 215 pp. Detective story.Google Scholar
Mansilla, Pepe 1973 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. Aquel año rojo. Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 166 pp. In a rural environment near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, several love conflicts are interwoven with social protest against the U.S. banana company.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1974 Carrillo Meza, Raúl. Lo que no tiene nombre. Guatemala City: Editorial Universitaria. Criollista novel.Google Scholar
Carrillo Meza, Raúl 1974 Juárez Muñoz, J. Fernando. Su señoría. Guatemala City: Tipografía Nacional. Romantic historical novel.Google Scholar
Juárez Muñoz, J. Fernando 1974 Mansilla, Pepe. Último gol. Guatemala City: Imprenta Eros, 156 pp. Basketball story.Google Scholar
Mansilla, Pepe 1975 Córdova, Samara de. La nuez vacía. Mexico City: Federación Editorial Mexicana. The flight of Latin Americans to New York.Google Scholar
Córdova, Samara de 1976 Díaz Lozano, Argentina. Eran las doce … y de noche. Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 181 pp. The president's wife helps the guerrillas escape and defeats the leader of the right-wing paramilitary group, but not before he orders the president assassinated. Closely based on political events from 1955 through the late 1960s with a love story added.Google Scholar
Díaz Lozano, Argentina 1976 Flores, Marco Antonio. Los compañeros. Mexico City: Joaquín Mortiz, 238 pp. A negative view of the guerrilla movement of the 1960s as well as a bitter denunciation of government violence, which is equated with the archetypal Terrible Mother. Interior monologue and free association, colloquial language and wordplay.Google Scholar
Flores, Marco Antonio 1976 Monteforte Toledo, Mario. Los desencontrados. Mexico City: Joaquín Mortiz, 191 pp. The matrimonial difficulties of a young Mexican engineer and his American wife in Mexico City give way to the exploration of many other social and personal conflicts among the members of his family. Interesting, but weak in structural coherence. The omniscient narrator prevents the characters from becoming more lifelike.Google Scholar
Monteforte Toledo, Mario 1976 Vázquez, Miguel Ángel. La semilla del fuego. Guatemala City: Ediciones Técnicas y Culturales, 355 pp. Criollista, national, social-protest novel typical of the 1930s and 1940s. Panoramic denunciation of the Ubico regime with a variety of geographical regions and social sectors.Google Scholar
Vázquez, Miguel Ángel 1977 Cifuentes, Edwin. Libres por el tema. Published in installments in El Imparcial (Guatemala City) between 22 January and 8 October. Formation of a utopia occasions political concern in an imaginary setting.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, Edwin 1978 Morales, Mario Roberto. Los demonios salvajes. Guatemala City: Dirección General de Cultura y Bellas Artes, 134 pp. Teenage frivolity in school and on wheels is contrasted with the self-sacrificing revolutionary guerrillas. Fragmented structure. Reminiscent of the Mexican onda writers, but displays greater political commitment.Google Scholar
Morales, Mario Roberto 1979 Arias, Arturo. Después de las bombas. Mexico City: Joaquín Mortiz, 195 pp. The carnivalesque denunciation of the Guatemalan counterrevolution from 1954 through the 1970s parallels the protagonist's growth from infancy to manhood during the archetypal search for his father. Effective wordplay.Google Scholar
Arias, Arturo 1979 Cifuentes, Edwin. El pueblo y los atentados. Guatemala City: Serviprensa Centroamericana, 253 pp. Carnivalesque denunciation of the Ubico dictatorship. The picaresque hero somehow joins forces anachronistically with the Sandinistas. Sentences and phrases are cleverly linked by words of the same or similar roots, spelling, or sounds.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, Edwin 1979 Cojulún Bedoya, Carlos. ¡Violencia! Guatemala City: Editorial Landívar, 207 pp. A romantic rags-to-riches story of the pure Floridalma who emerges from the city slums to become a teacher. She marries the wealthy captain Braulio, head of a vigilante anti-right-wing terrorist group. Realistic portrayal of urban violence and the social effects of modernization in the late 1970s.Google Scholar
Cojulún Bedoya, Carlos 1981 Arias, Arturo. Itzam Na. Havana: Casa de las Américas, 297 pp. Endless wandering of a group of wealthy Guatemalan hippies. Drugs, sex, and rock music. “Mod” language and experimental orthography.Google Scholar
Arias, Arturo 1981 Castellanos, Pruden. Los estafados. Guatemala City: Editorial “Apolo,” 214 pp. Fast-moving account of the 1954–70 period, with three alternating plot lines starring a Puerto Rican CIA agent, a Mexican Communist, and a young military officer who becomes a guerrilla leader. All three are presented objectively. The title refers to the dead Guatemalans who fell victims to American and Soviet policies.Google Scholar
Castellanos, Pruden 1982 Albizúrez Palma, Francisco. Casa de curas y otras locuras. Guatemala City: Editorial Rin, 177 pp. Casa de curas is a short novel (110 pp.) consisting of a series of vignettes narrated by a former priest. Encounters with a variety of priests and other former priests as well as recollections of seminary life. Criticizes the Church hierarchy and praises the self-sacrificing priests who work among the poor. Nostalgia for the tranquil Guatemala City of the 1930s and 1940s. Effective, unadorned, “nonliterary” style.Google Scholar
Albizúrez Palma, Francisco 1982 Carrera, Mario Alberto. Hogar dulce hogar. Guatemala City: Maxi-Impresos, 236 pp. The title is ironic. The narrator paints a totally negative picture of his parents and other relatives, particularly his father, a drunken military officer who sides with Arana in his ill-fated struggle against Arbenz. Heavy emphasis on personal problems.Google Scholar